For the first time in eight years, all four Hendrick Motorsports cars finish outside the top 25




BROOKLYN, Mich. — On a day in which Ford officials launched into a wild celebration of the car builder's 1,000th victory in NASCAR, it seemed appropriate that the sport's top Chevrolet team members were in the background, licking wounds.
Hendrick Motorsports, which opened the Quicken Loans 400 with four strong cars, ended Sunday at Michigan International Speedway with three of them in the garage and the fourth — driven by points leader Jimmie Johnson — limping home.
Johnson finished 28th, Dale Earnhardt Jr. 37th, Kasey Kahne 38th and Jeff Gordon 39th. Johnson kept the series points lead, but Earnhardt Jr. fell three spots to seventh, Kahne fell four to 12th and Gordon five to 16th.
The day marked an ugly landmark for Hendrick — the first time all four team cars finished outside the top 25 in eight years.
All four Hendrick drivers had potent cars Sunday, and three led laps in double figures. Two drivers were leading the race when trouble hit.
Johnson, whose team struggled with strategy issues and poor pit stops, still had a late-race shot to catch eventual winner Greg Biffle when he pushed his car too hard in the pursuit. He popped a tire with two laps to go and scraped the wall, ending his surge.
"Jimmie, I'm so sorry, buddy," crew chief Chad Knaus told Johnson over the radio. "I totally (messed you up) today. I'm really, really sorry. I'm embarrassed."
Johnson called it a tough day, saying Knaus was too hard on himself.
"Our strategy was throwing some challenges at us today, and we just struggled with maintaining track position," he said. "But we had a fast car, and I could drive up through there, and as soon as I'd get to first or second, a caution would come out and then something would happen again and we'd lose track position.
"But we had a great race car, and I hate having that problem at the end. I had to run the car really hard to get through all those guys and must have worn through that right front tire with two or three to go. It went down going into turn one."